The present invention relates to circuit packages, and more particularly to dismountable, materially separable circuit packages.
Although prior art circuit packages for semiconductor components are well known, these disclosed conventional packages have numerous disadvantages. Prominent among these disadvantages are lack of material separability, spatial inefficiency, and power limitations.
The packages disclosed in the literature are neither cost efficient nor thermally and electrically optimal. The German Patent DE 41 11 247 A1, for example, is a circuit package described primarily for power semiconductor applications. As with conventional circuit packages, this patent requires utilization of both semiconductor cooling and mounting components. These components, however, inherently require a significant amount of space. Accordingly, the dimensions of these components primarily dictate spatial requirements of these circuit packages and significantly limit the overall density of the circuit package.
The prior art also discloses a multiple level circuit package for improved semiconductor packaging density. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,588 (hereinafter "the '588 Patent"), for example, the package generally shows carrier components with heat sink components arranged in mirror-image fashion above each other.
While this package does promote greater circuit density, the package has limited application beyond semiconductor packaging. One such limitation is the inability to replace individual components. A material feature of any circuit package is the accessibility of the individual components for replacement. Since this package requires a static physical structure, once assembled, the circuit is neither dismountable nor materially separable for component replacement.
The circuit package of French Patent FR 2 614 494 A1 is limited in application for the same reason. This patent discloses a multiple layer circuit package electrically interconnected by means of contact springs. This patent, as with the '588 Patent, discloses a higher density circuit package by means of a static structure. Accordingly, component replacement is not pragmatically achievable with this circuit package. Thus, it is apparent that the devices of the prior art have not adequately addressed longstanding spatial efficiency and accessability issues.